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The Danzig crisis was an important prelude to World War II.The crisis lasted from March 1939 until the outbreak of war on 1 September 1939. The crisis began when tensions escalated between Nazi Germany and the Second Polish Republic Poland over the Free City of Danzig (modern-day Gdańsk, Poland).
The Defence of the Polish Post Office in Danzig was one of the first acts of World War II in Europe, as part of the September Campaign. [1] [3]: 39, 42 On 1 September 1939 the Invasion of Poland was initiated by Germany when the battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish-controlled harbor of Danzig, around 04:45–48 hours.
Danzig was left as ruins. [6] The bombardments, constant combat and continuous fires resulted in most of the city's landmarks being destroyed. On 30 March, the newly renamed Gdańsk was subject to the provisional government, which created the Gdańsk Voivodeship. [6]
The Polish population increased disproportionately in the 1920s and 1930s and was estimated at 20% shortly before the start of World War II in 1939. [37] The Catholic priest Franciszek Rogaczewski estimated that Poles made up about 20% of the population of the Free City of Danzig in 1936. [10]
After World War II the city became again part of Poland and the city's German inhabitants, that had constituted the majority of the city's mixed population before the war, either fled or were expelled to Germany in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement. During post-1945 era, the city was rebuilt from war damage, and vast shipyards were constructed.
Refugee trek, in Danzig and the surrounding area, February 1945 Propaganda signs, Danzig, February 1945: "Panic and rumours are the best allies of the Bolshevists!" The flight and expulsion of Germans from Poland was the largest of a series of flights and expulsions of Germans in Europe during and after World War II.
The Polish 75 mm field gun became one of Germany's first war trophies of World War II, displayed on a column at Flensburg. After the war, it was moved to stand before the Naval Academy Mürwik. [19] Westerplatte Monument, an obelisk also known as the "Monument to the Defenders of the Coast" or "Historical Monument, Site of the Battle of ...
The Polish Corridor and Danzig 1923–1939. The 1939 German ultimatum to Poland refers to a list of 16 demands by Nazi Germany to Poland, largely regarding the Polish Corridor and status of the Free City of Danzig attached to German demands to negotiate on August 29, 1939. It was announced on German radio that these points had been rejected on ...